Project Failure Statistics and Facts

Below are project failure statistics as published by 2 independent research firms:

Bull Survey

Bad Communications – 57%

Lack of Planning – 39%

Poor Quality Control – 35%

Missing Interim Deliverables – 34%

Poor Budget Management – 29%

Poor Project Management – 20%

The Standish Group – The CHAOS Report

Incomplete Requirements 13.1%

Lack of User Involvement 12.4%

Lack of Resources 10.6%

Unrealistic Expectations 9.9%

Lack of Executive Support 9.3%

Changing Requirements & Specifications 8.7%

Lack of Planning 8.1%

Didn’t Need It Any Longer 7.5%

Lack of IT Management 6.2%

Technology Illiteracy 4.3%

Other 9.9%

The CHAOS Report also states the following:

31.1% of projects being canceled before completion.

52.7% of projects cost 189% of their original estimates.

Michael Wood is the Subject Matter Expert on IT Strategy and Business Process Improvement for www.gantthead.com. His “Helix Factor” book series presents a comprehensive Business Process Improvement methodology that has been used successfully since the early 1980s to help organizations achieve breakthrough results. Michael is a CPA and has served as an adjunct professor for Pepperdine and Cal Lutheran universities in Southern California. In addition he has led workshops on Business Process Improvement, Strategic Planning and System Design on a national and international basis.

About the Author: PM Hut
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1 Comment

John t. ILunga
on February 1, 2014 at 5:47 am

All those statistics published pointed and coined just the management,schedule, and budget issues,but we should also include the major objective of every system which is providing a solution to a business problem or opportunity, because if the system does not do this, then it is a failure regardless of positive reaction from users, acceptable budget performance, or timely delivery…